BASEBALL

BASEBALL; The Marlins? The Rockies? Get Used to It. It's Official.

By MURRAY CHASS

Published: July 6, 1991

The road that began six years, three commissioners and three league presidents ago finally reached Denver and Miami yesterday as the 26 major league club owners unanimously approved the cities as sites for the National League's 13th and 14th franchises.

Denver club officials, with league president Bill White in attendance, immediately identified their new team as the Colorado Rockies. It's not an original name -- the New Jersey Devils had it when that National Hockey League franchise was in Denver -- but it's a popular one in the Rocky Mountains area.

The Miami team will be the Florida Marlins, a name intended to have broader appeal in the state than Miami Marlins or South Florida Marlins, which were also considered.

For an expansion fee of $95 million each, the Marlins will become the seventh team in the Eastern Division in 1993 while the Rockies will join the Western Division. The American League became a 14-team league in 1977 with the addition of the Toronto Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners. The National League last grew in 1969 when the Montreal Expos and the San Diego Padres came into existence.

"I am delighted by the unanimous approval for the two National League expansion franchises," Commissioner Fay Vincent said in a statement issued shortly after the owners voted in a brief conference call. "All of baseball should be as excited as I am by the prospect of baseball in these two wonderful areas."

White, in his own statement, referred to the "long and thorough process" that led to the creation of the two new teams. When that process was initiated, by Peter Ueberroth after he became commissioner in 1984, White was a broadcaster for the Yankees and Charles (Chub) Feeney was the National League president.

Before he died in 1989, A. Bartlett Giamatti served as both league president and commissioner during the interim.

For several years, the process bogged down and appeared to stall until a committee of United States senators, including those from Colorado and Florida, began pushing baseball officials and owners to expand. Some officials and owners had been reluctant to add teams for various reasons, including a desire not to dilute the level of talent any further.

But last year the National League geared up for a serious march toward the selection of two new teams, first receiving applications from 18 prospective ownership groups from 10 cities, then designating 6 finalists. Miami and Denver won out last month over Washington, Buffalo and two other Florida cities, St. Petersburg and Orlando.

The new teams will have minor league teams in operation next season, then select 36 players each in an expansion draft in November 1992.

At a news conference yesterday, Denver owners unveiled the team logo: a soaring baseball against a background of mountains. The team's primary color will be purple, with silver and black as secondary colors. The team will play in Mile High Stadium, where a minor league team and the Denver Broncos of the National Football League play, until a new 43,000-seat stadium is built in downtown Denver. The new park is expected to be ready some time during the 1994 season or for the start of the 1995 season.

Photo: The logo for the Colorado Rockies. The Miami team has not released its yet.